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This story is part of the “Mission Critical” series highlighting the various, specialized groups that enable Jefferson Lab’s mission of exploring the nature of matter

Newswise — NEWPORT NEWS, VA – “Spin doctors” work at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility. Only these aren’t slick-talking pitch artists, nor are they members of that rock band with those hits from the 90s.

“Other than cryogenics, we always say, ‘Anything that spins typically falls into our laps,’” Mechanical Preventive Maintenance Coordinator Jason Joyce said.

With upwards of 4,000 machines that feature spinning mechanical parts across the site, diagnosing and treating each of them is the charge of Jefferson Lab’s “spin doctors” – heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) professionals.

Simply put, it’s their responsibility to keep the lab cool or warm. And while keeping buildings comfortable is part of the job, these technicians are also essential to the lab’s ability to conduct scientific experiments, process the volumes of data those experiments create, and generate theoretical calculations that push scientific boundaries.

Split between preventive and corrective maintenance functions, the lab’s HVAC teams are members of the Facility Management & Logistics division’s Facility Maintenance & Operations department. And though they officially comprise separate units on the organizational chart, the preventive maintenance (PM) and corrective maintenance (CM) groups work so closely together that their members consider themselves to be on the same team.

“We go out there and perform preventive maintenance on equipment and keep it running as optimally as we can, and if we run into an issue that can’t be repaired in PM, then corrective maintenance comes in while we continue on with the PM work,” HVAC Technician II Randy Tarver said. “It’s all one team. It’s all one love. It’s all one goal – one mission.”

Joyce added that his corrective-maintenance counterpart, Mike Sprouse, brings 40 years of HVAC experience and nearly 25 years of service to the lab, serving as a mentor for technicians as they learn the nuances and intricacies of the work. The HVAC professionals also collaborate with facilities engineers led by Carroll Jones and other members of the Facility Management & Logistics division to execute their roles.

These skilled technicians are also available to lend their expertise to projects outside of their usual scope of work, which can include up to 300 projects – each requiring dozens of individual tasks – within a given month.

Function Beyond Comfort

During operation, support systems for the lab’s Continuous Electron Beam Accelerator Facility (CEBAF) generate heat as the accelerator propels the electron beam needed to probe the properties of , the elementary constituents of visible matter.

To mitigate the effects of that heat, HVAC technicians must make sure CEBAF’s service buildings stay cool enough for optimal operation of their components. A complex piping system circulating 45- to 55-degree Fahrenheit water feeds several chilled water units that keep those spaces cool.

While planning and executing work is easier when the accelerator is turned off during scheduled maintenance periods, the pressure intensifies when cooling malfunctions occur during experimental runs as CEBAF produces its electron beam.

“If we’re in the middle of a run, and we get a phone call that a building is hot or there’s water everywhere, it’s definitely an all-hands-on-deck situation,” said Joyce, a longtime lab HVAC technician who recently became the PM supervisor.

HVAC professionals also play a critical role in stewarding the lab’s experimental data and high-performance computing. The array of servers and computers inside the Jefferson Lab Data Center create heat as they run, which requires an ample supply of air conditioning to prevent the machines from overheating.

“It’s our crown jewel – our No. 1A at all times,” Joyce said. “The lab runs through there completely. If that goes down, it has a domino effect.”

The volume of on-site equipment requires that technicians rotate through an on-call schedule so that someone is available to address issues and make repairs around the clock if needed.

Amid demanding schedules, the team makes safety a top priority through thoughtful and thorough project planning.

“It really makes you think the task through from start to finish,” Joyce said. “I try not to build out the plan on the supervisory side, because I want the techs to think about a task from start to finish. Then I’m there to review it and confirm that, ‘Yes, you thought about this all the way through. This looks good; let’s approve it and move on.’”

Dialing in the Human Element

Jefferson Lab presents the opportunity for HVAC professionals to work with equipment they may not encounter in the residential or commercial fields. For example, the chillers that cool CEBAF service buildings and the Data Center can have up to 200 times the cooling capacity of a residential air conditioning system.

“Trying to cut my teeth on this equipment while learning the site as a whole was pretty intimidating,” Joyce said, reflecting on his early days at the lab in 2018. “I leaned on the techs who were here at the time, Mike (Sprouse) and Carroll (Jones), and they guided me and got me through it. But don’t get me wrong – there are still times we walk up to a piece of equipment and we’re scratching our heads. We may understand how it works, but it could be something you haven’t seen before.”

The learning curve for working on systems of this scale is continuous, which resulted in a culture of accountability and trust that guides the group through inevitable challenges.

“If there’s an issue, nobody is too ashamed to say, ‘Hey, I kind of screwed up here. What can we do to fix it?’” Joyce said. “We move on, and we’ll help them get it done. It’s a good group dynamic.”

Tarver agreed.

“I think we have very positive working relationships. Perhaps it’s the blue-collar responsibility we all have; it’s engrained into our fabric. If you do this work, you’re able to live, laugh and love each other. The respect is mutual,” he added.

Both Joyce and Tarver say that serving the lab through their HVAC skills is a point of pride.

“This has been a great opportunity for me to hone my skills and become a top-notch HVAC pro,” Tarver said. “I’m very grateful for the opportunity to see and work on things that I’ve never worked on before.”

Joyce added, “You’re proud when someone asks, ‘Where do you work?’ and you get to say, ‘Jefferson Lab.’ I really enjoy this place. I never thought I’d end up here, but I don’t plan on leaving.”

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Jefferson Science Associates, LLC, manages and operates the Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility, or Jefferson Lab, for the U.S. Department of Energy's Office of Science. JSA is a wholly owned subsidiary of the Southeastern Universities Research Association, Inc. (SURA).

DOE’s Office of Science is the single largest supporter of basic research in the physical sciences in the United States and is working to address some of the most pressing challenges of our time. For more information, visit